Hamilton, Pistons rout Nets

Hamilton scored 19 points to lead a balanced attack as the
Detroit Pistons breezed to a 118-95 victory over the Nets on
Sunday night.

Chauncey Billups collected 18 points and nine assists and Jason
Maxiell had 18 and 11 rebounds for Detroit, which has won three
straight games here against New Jersey.

Hamilton's performance was much-needed after scoring just eight
points in Saturday's win at Milwaukee.

"(Hamilton) just did what he usually does," Billups said. "When
he's out there, he's the 'Energizer Bunny.' He shoots most of
our shots on our team and he's always going to make a lot more
than he misses. He was good."

Maxiell was a huge spark off the bench with starter Antonio
McDyess in early foul trouble.

"Max was big," Hamilton said. "He was huge. He's big every
(game). He's going to come and play with a lot of energy like
he usually does. He made a lot of shots. He could have had a
lot more easy baskets, but he had bad hands tonight, and I told
him that (jokingly), but he was excellent."

The Nets fell to just 6-39 on the road in the series dating back
to the 1985-86 campaign.

Despite it being lopsided during the regular season, Billups
still remembers the sting of being swept by the Nets in the 2003
playoffs and being forced into a Game Seven the following
season.

"My first year they swept us in the playoffs," Billups said.
"Since then, maybe we've had some good competitive battles with
them. We've pretty much played pretty good against everybody.
I don't feel like we've just dominated them."

Tied at 27-27 after one quarter, the Pistons pulled away in the
second behind a 10-4 surge to close out the first half en route
to a 54-44 advantage at intermission.

Detroit continued to add to its cushion with an 11-0 burst to
finish the third, extending the lead to 87-67 heading into the
final period.

"We made some coverage mistakes in the third, and they made us
pay," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. "And when we did start
getting an offensive rhythm in the third, we could not get any
stops. You need to bring your defense with you, especially on
the road and we just had too many breakdowns."

"We were playing against a very good team in Detroit," New
Jersey guard Jason Kidd said. "At the end of the third quarter,
10 goes to 20 and that was pretty much it. We didn't have any
answers, and it seemed like they made every shot, and if they
didn't make it, they got the offensive rebound and that put us
in the hole."

McDyess and Rasheed Wallace poured in 12 points apiece to help
the Pistons captured their sixth win in seven tries since
dropping back-to-back games to Dallas and Sacramento.

Vince Carter poured in 22 points and Richard Jefferson chipped
in 21 for the Nets, who shot 45 percent (35-of-77) from the
field

Kidd handed out a season-high 16 assists. It was the 12th time
this season the veteran floor general reached double figures in
assists.